Panthera Tigris Tigris
by Kiite Tsukai
Summary: A fairly angsty alternate reality Serena/Darien story.


Title: Panthera Tigris Tigris - Part 1/?  
Author: Kiite  
Chapter Rating:PG-13 for slight language and violence  
Overall Rating:NRY  
Disclaimer: I don't own BSSM, Takeuchi Naoko/Kodansha/TOEI Animation   
have that privilege. (I gave up spicing these things up awhile ago. Now   
I have a standard one saved on a disk that I copy and paste.) The story,   
however, is MINE. You'sa stealit, you'sa diee. ^_^; Enjoy!  
AN: Behold the angst! BWAHAHAHAHA!  
"..."  
Email, minna! And go to www.lovesenshi.com, I love the songs she   
posts... Serena is named for Cynthia Voight, author of Homecoming. Read   
on, folks!   
------------------------------  
A tiger.  
That's what she thought of, only moments after she first met him. Never   
mind that there wasn't a trace of orange in his jet-black hair, and his   
eyes were a piercing cerulean, nowhere near the soft brown of the   
original. Something about his stance, the way he'd looked at her, threw   
her off, and she didn't like it.  
"Panthera tigris tigris."  
She savored the words, rolling them over her tongue, as her legs moved   
like well-oiled pistons against the sidewalk, making virtually no sound   
as her feet pounded the cement over and over. Shifting the lopsided   
weight of her backpack slightly, she slowed her pace as her house loomed   
larger in the distance.  
Seventeen-year-old Serena Voight was a mystery to all but a chosen   
few; even they didn't completely understand her. Hell, she hardly   
understood herself. Teenage mood swings, she reasoned, were what had   
done this to her. At fifteen, she'd been a cheerful slacker, always   
late, never caring. But those she cared about had been everything to her   
in those days; as time progressed, she'd distanced herself, focusing   
completely on success, academic and otherwise. People she had cared for   
beyond anything one year ago, she treated with reserved, cold courtesy   
now. Friend, foe and family alike blamed Melvin Grier, but that's a   
story for another day.  
He'd stolen her first kiss; she was especially bitter about that.  
Quietly opening the door, she hung up her backpack - 'for the last   
time til September,' she thought gratefully. Rolling her shoulders, she   
allowed herself a rare blissful smile, then trudged up the stairs to her   
room. Kicking her shoes off, she propped her feet up on the computer's   
hard drive, cool and welcoming beneath the callused skin of her heels.   
Every movement bore a casual elegance, posture confidently straight.   
Freeing her hair from its uniform braid, she fired up the ancient   
machine, leaning back in her swiveling chair as the "Windows 95" screen   
flashed up. Raising her arm, she winced at the dull ache in her   
shoulder, noticing it as if for the first time. The injury was old, very   
old, and yet she remembered as if it had been yesterday...  
***FLASHBACK***  
Two girls strode along on their way to the bus stop, chattering happily   
in short, clipped tones. One smiled, tapping a head of thick black hair,   
talking the entire time. Her tone carried a hint of a mischievious   
reprimand, which brought an indignant squeal and more excited chatter   
from the petite blond next to her.  
"Che!" she sighed in exasperation, finally noticing the fingers her   
friend had casually jammed into either ear, now whistling nonchalantly   
as her eyes wandered over the parking lot.  
"Ne, doushite no?" the blonde inquired, noticing her friend's sudden   
look of panic, shock soon following.  
"Nan da, daijobu," she replied hastily, too hastily, quickly jerking   
cool, dark eyes around to meet the deep azure of the slim child-woman.   
She held the taller girl's shimmery, midnight gaze for a moment before   
nodding slowly, reluctantly, and taking her hand gently.  
"Kuruyo, Ami-san wa iru!" Laughing once again, she bounced off to the   
bus bench where another girl waited, dragging a protesting, stumbling   
miko behind her.  
Waving cheerfully, the two stepped away from the bus, the blonde   
calling out to the other black-haired girls on the bus.  
"Ja ma!" Turning, she glanced sideways at her friend, gasping under her   
breath at the girl's arrested, panicky expression. Following her gaze,   
she glanced curiously at the other girl - these were only the same five   
bullies from that American school near theirs! Tapping her shoulder, she   
took her arm, gently tugging her away. She turned quickly, walking   
alongside her friend, taking such long strides that the other girl was   
jogging to keep up. Once again, she looked curiously over at the taller   
girl, wondering what she was so obviously frightened of.  
"Hey, you!" They kept walking.  
"Yeah, you, b(censored)h!" The smaller girl stopped abruptly, turning   
slowly, a deadly glint in her eyes. She could deal with "hey, you," but   
calling some random girl you hardly knew "b(censored)h" was too much.  
"Hey, you wanna say that again?" She spoke the English with a perfect   
accent, despite the fluent Japanese of earlier.  
"Yeah, sure, b(censored)h." She straightened, the glint dimming a bit,   
but looking no less deadly.  
"Do you know why people curse?" she inquired, tone low, walking slowly   
toward them. The speaker shrugged, answering offhandedly.  
"Cause it fits the situation." Smirking, she continued her slow,   
confident stride, shaking her head briefly.  
"No. People curse because they want to look tough. But you know what? I   
don't hear tough at all. I hear scared." By this time, her friend had   
turned back, watching the proceedings with mute interest.  
"Ne, doushite no?" Without looking back, she replied flatly:  
"Daijobu."  
"Oh, I'm so scared, the little Jap girl's gonna beat us up!" another   
piped up from the back of the group.  
"I could dispute the technicalities of that remark - for one thing, have   
you ever seen a Japanese blonde? - but I think I'll leave that for   
another day," she shot back sharply, increasing the speed of her stride.   
Eyes smoldering, she ran at them, relishing the blatant look of fear in   
their eyes. For pure effect, she whipped her schoolbag around, tossing   
it sharply, catching the foremost in the stomach.  
And then she was on them, adrenaline pounding through her veins,   
kicking, scratching, hitting, a quick, lethal jab and then back...  
Whipping around, her eyes found the young priestess - now   
entangled in the fray, fighting tooth and nail as one raised a rather   
bulky sock above her head behind her. Her eyes widened, blazing now with   
fear - a blackjack. Sending a kick to an attacker's head, she bolted   
towards the girl, fear rising in her throat, tears threatening to spill,   
blurring her vision.  
"Abunai!" As if in slow motion, the girl turned instantaneously, raising   
an arm to block it -  
The blonde rammed into an obstacle, struggled fiercely to reach her   
friend, straining against the force slowly twisting her arm -  
The sock hit its target with a sickening crack, and the beautiful miko   
crumpled, fine midnight hair fluttering around her as she fell.  
"Rei-chan! IIYAAAA!" she wailed, unconsciously releasing the tension in   
her arm, shrieking as it was painfully, suddenly twisted, tears rising   
in her eyes. Uppercutting her attacker out of desperation, she looked up   
in surprise at the familiar grunt -  
Haunting green eyes met hers as he fell, long, lanky legs buckling   
beneath him. She stared down at him silently, eyes wide and teary in   
betrayal, loss churning inside her.  
"Melvin," she said softly, voice trembling ever so slightly. Bending   
down beside him, she picked up her bag, fingering the bruise forming   
where she'd struck him. She hadn't known her punch was that strong.   
Rei's situation suddenly coming back to mind, Serena sprang to her feet,   
running silently across the street.  
***END FLASHBACK***  
She closed her eyes, reliving the pain yet again. Rei had died within   
the week. Melvin had been minorly injured, and she still didn't know why   
he'd been with them, or why Rei had been so afraid of them. She'd broken   
things off with him the next day, although she couldn't shake the sick   
feeling she was doing something wrong. She simply couldn't look at him   
every day, knowing he was part of the reason her best friend was dead,   
and continue seeing him. He'd been nothing but good to her until then,   
and she believed he'd genuinely loved her, or thought he had.   
The attack had been ruled a hate crime, but the only one who had   
ever been identified was Melvin. Since he'd had no part in Rei's actual   
murder, and there was no proof he'd known anything about it beforehand,   
he'd been sentenced to six months in prison, with the help of a rather   
lenient judge. He'd gotten out on parole three months later, tried to   
patch things up with her, and she'd knocked him out cold again. He'd   
never approached her since then, but she'd learned not to trust, and the   
experience had built a wall around her heart.  
"Veni, vidi, vici," she muttered proudly. "I came, I saw, I conquered."  



End file.
